Question: Automated Application Controls. The following provides a brief description of the computerized payroll system used by Merriman in its biweekly processing of payroll for its employees.

1. Employees automatically record their attendance (hours worked) as they log in at the beginning and end of the workday.

2. At the end of each payroll period (every two weeks), employees print and authorize their attendance records, submitting them to their supervisor. The computer prenumbers these attendance records and generates them in chronological order based on when the employee submits his or her final attendance for that payroll period.

3. Supervisors review the attendance records submitted by their employees and authorize these records, which the supervisors then forward to data entry conversion operators.

4. Data conversion operators input the attendance record number, employee number, and hours worked from the attendance records that have been approved by the employee supervisors into a file to be used for computerized processing.

5. Once the entire batch of records has been accepted for processing, the computer program accesses the payroll master file data. Gross salary is then calculated as follows:

• Gross salary for hourly wage employees is determined by multiplying the number of hours worked from the transaction file by the wage rate contained in that employee's master file record.

• Gross salary for salaried employees is determined directly from the employee's master file record.

6. After the calculation of gross salary, information from the employee's payroll master file data as well as federal income tax and FICA withholding tables is used to calculate deductions from that employee's pay.

7. A payroll register is generated, distributed, and reviewed for reasonableness and obvious processing errors.

8. Following the review of the payroll register, funds are transferred into the account designated by the employee (for those employees who have authorized electronic transfer of funds) or paychecks are prepared and held for employees (for employees who have not authorized electronic transfer of funds). Required:

For each of the preceding steps in Merriman's payroll processing, identify appropriate controls that the company has either implemented or should implement to ensure the authorized and accurate processing of payroll transactions.